May 23, 2009

A Vegan Vists Chaya Brasserie

Last month, I spent the weekend in San Francisco for my birthday. The entire weekend turned out to be a vegan gastronomic delight, and today I'm going to share with you my wonderful vegan meal at Chaya Brasserie on the Embarcadero down by the Ferry Building.

There's nothing vegan about Chaya. It features an extensive sushi menu and a hearty array of carnivorous options on its menu. But what Chaya does provide is quite a number of vegetarian rolls, if sushi is your thing, and a willingness to custom build an amazing vegan platter for you out of the many seasonal and local vegetables that are available as side dishes for the rest of the patrons. It didn't hurt that our waiter was a former vegan himself, so immediately understood the ramifications of that dietary choice.

Our waiter was an interesting fellow who told us all about how he abandoned his vegan diet when he went into rock climbing "semi-competitively". I didn't want to burst his bubble and tell him about the Ironman triathletes and bodybuilders who have done well competitive, despite their vegan diet...and they might say because of it...and I also didn't want to dig too deeply into what "semi-competitive rock-climbing" might be.

Not being one who likes to choose between equally delicious sounding options, I got the S.O. to agree to order and share some vegetarian sushi with me, and then I also ordered a custom vegetable platter.

We started with the rolls, ordering one Shitake Roll ($6.50) and one Asparagus and Avocado Roll ($8.50). The latter was dusted with Tempura, which gave it a rich, sinful flavor. Chaya makes a point that their wasabi is authentic, and it did indeed clear my sinuses, let's just say that!

For dinner, I also got a Beet Salad (sans goat cheese) which featured plump, savory beets and crisp, fresh endive. The I moved on to my custom veggie platter. Basically we pulled every vegetable I love off the menu, tossed them in some tremendous olive oil and garlic concoction and served this perfection to me.

And as if all of the afore-mentioned favorite foods making their way across my plate weren't enough? Chaya serves a wonderful, tart, Organic Meyer Lemon Sorbet. Dessert is often the one thing I don't get to partake in when dining out, so while the S.O. pigged out on whatever heavy chocolate monstrosity he ordered, I got to have one of my favorite things...lemon sorbet. Simple pleasures, indeed!

Every thing about our evening, which was kicking off by birthday weekend, was spectacular. So much so that I'm heading there again this Saturday night to take a friend out for her birthday. Chaya is the kind of place that can become a go-to restaurant whenever you're in that neighborhood...and especially if you have a variety of dietary types to accommodate.